'Reassigned,' huh?
Apparently, that would be the new school lingo for "getting fired, stripped of all control and almost completely banned from having anything to do with your employer."
If not, Donnie Walsh is making it the new school lingo.
As reported by ESPN:
What a fiasco.Former New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas has been banned from having any contact with members of the team as part of his reassignment agreement with team president Donnie Walsh, the New York Daily News reported, citing a team source.
According to the report, there is concern that Thomas, if allowed to have any contact with the team, could either willingly or unwillingly undermine its new coach. Thomas acquired all the players on the current Knicks roster as team president.
Thomas does not have an official title. He reports directly to Walsh, who said no player brought up Thomas' name during last Thursday's exit meetings.
"I don't want there to be some kind of double-voice here, so he's answering to me and nobody's reporting to him," Walsh said. "… He's not going to be here on a full-time basis anymore. I'll be calling the shots, I'm in charge of the franchise. It's my responsibility where it was his."
It really must be an ungodly sort of dirt that Isiah Thomas is holding over James Dolan's head, perhaps from the sexual harassment case from last autumn. Because it's hard to remember any sort of precedent for such a bizarre shift in job status.
It's quite clear that his successor wants absolutely nothing to do with him. Doesn't want him as a coach. Or a GM. Or as anyone with any sort of influence with the players. Or as much of anything else.
Back in the good old days, folks like that were fired. Apparently that's no longer the case in New York City.
Doesn't have a job. Doesn't have any underlings. Reports to the boss. What's he going to report, exactly?
These last strands of the Zeke Era have been even more amusing than expected. Keep it up, Big Apple brain trust.